Ada R. Habershon

Ada Ruth Habershon (1861-1918) was an English Christian hymnist, best known for her 1907 gospel song "Will the Circle Be Unbroken?" for which the tune was composed by Charles H. Gabriel.

Ada R. Habershon was born in Marylebone, England, on January 8, 1861. Her father, Dr. Samuel Osborne Habershon, was a noted physician; her mother was Grace Habershon. She was raised in Chelsea, London, in a Christian home. In her twenties, she was a member of the circle surrounding Charles Spurgeon. She met Dwight L. Moody and Ira D. Sankey in 1884 during their preaching tour of England. At their urging, she visited the United States, delivering a series of lectures on the Old Testament that were later published.

Habershon's first foray into hymn writing came in 1899, when she wrote several hymns in the German language. She wrote her first English language hymns in 1901, while ill. In 1905, Charles M. Alexander and R. A. Torrey toured the United Kingdom, and Alexander asked Habershon to write hymns for use during this evangelistic tour. Habershon ultimately sent Alexander over 200 hymns.

• Types in the Old Testament, 1898
• Vorbilder: Christus im alten Testament, 1899
• The Study of the Types (London: Morgan & Scott, 1898)
• The Study of the Parables (London: Nisbet, 1904)
• The Bible and the British Museum (London: Morgan & Scott, 1904)
• The Priests and Levites, a Type of the Church; a Bible Study, 1908
• A Sevenfold Method of Studying the Epistles to the Seven Churches, 1914
• Hidden Pictures: Or, How the New Testament is Concealed in the Old Testament (London: Flemming H. Revell Company, 1916)
• The Day of Atonement in Its Prophetic Aspect, 1916
• A Gatherer of Fresh Spoil; an Autobiography and Memoir, 1918
• I Am a Prayer and Other Poems, 1918
• Israel’s Exodus: Past and Future, 1918
• Outline Study of the Tabernacle
• The Victorian Handbook of Types
• Study of the Miracles
• The Titles of the Lord of Glory, 1910 (with a preface by Sir Robert Anderson)
• Exploring in New Testament Fields

• Profile from Public Domain Music
• Biography at the Cyber Hymnal
• List of Hymns from hymnary.org
• Works by or about Ada R. Habershon at Internet Archive